I didn’t see this show. It sounds like it wasn’t much good (outside the semimain) so maybe that was a good thing.

Today’s CMLL show has a first time main event, Diamante Azul taking on his old NJPW tag team partner Rush. Rush has a great track record of singles matches. Diamante Azul’s doesn’t. Something’s got to give! Also, somehow Diamante Azul is the favorite to win this, which is kind of amazing.

Atlantis, Johnny Idol and Mistico take on Dragon Rojo, La Mascara and Terrible in the semimain, and Angel de Oro, Blue Panther, Rey Cometa versus Vangellys, Polvora, and Sagrado in the fourth match. Both are the best chances at other good matches on the card. The first half of the card has Blue Panther, the Panther & Pegasso vs Disturbio, Okumura and Virus (which might not be bad), Hombre Bala, Oro & Robin against Arkangel, Metalico and Nitro (which will be bad) and Flyer & Leono vs Akmua & Camorra (which will also be not watchable.)

Guadalajara has the misfortune of running a Shocker & Negro Casas title defense when they’re already part of the Universal tournament announced a few days from now. Volador & Valiente will challenge, have a good match, and almost certainly lose.

CMLL’s changed Saturday’s card slightly. Fuego moves up to the semimain to replace Esfinge, and Flyer is added to replace Fuego in the segunda. They also keep changing the subtitle for the Universal tournament on Friday.

Televisa ran a story correcting it’s story from Friday night which had claimed the original LA Park was in jail. There’s video of it here, and a text recap here. They talked to both LA Park & La Parka, confirming neither of them were in jail, and are going with the idea the jailed guy thought he was being La Parka but was fooled by a unknown local promoter.

Ángel de Oro, Titán and Fuego are part of the upcoming NJPW tour, running from 10/21 to 11/05. They’re part of a Super Juniors Tag Team tournament, with the quarterfinals on 10/21, semifinals on 10/30 and final on 11/05. All of those shows should air on NJPWWorld (and it appears nothing else is currently on the schedule.) Ángel de Oro & Titán are a team facing Rocky Romero & Barretta, and Fuego teams with dancing friend Ryusuke Taguchi against Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask 4. Romero & Baretta appear to be breaking up, so a CMLL upset is possible there. The CMLL wrestlers face off early in the tour, before being split in other shows.

It’s probably a not a coincidence Ángel de Oro is also working ROH this weekend. It’s too bad they didn’t pick Titán or Fuego for that spot; I would’ve driven to Dearborn for Kamaitachi against Titan without thinking twice, and I don’t think I’m going even to Chicago Ridge to see Oro.

In an interview on Tazz’s radio show, Alberto now explained he was attacked when someone “disrespected his girl.” His previous two versions of this story – when he was hit by a car and when a homeless man attacked him – were both attacks from behind, not prompted by something said to or about Paige. I’m not sure anyone believes this story at this point but people are still willing to go along with it in the name of making money. Alberto also conducted an interview with ESPN, but only talked about Paige’s newest suspension and bizarrely declared his nickname was el Presidente (which it hasn’t been anywhere but this interview.) Much of Alberto’s behavior is bizarre.

Taya defended her AAA Reina de Reinas title over Thunder Rosa (Kobra Moon) on the 10/07 Sabotage show in California. Same show has a WWS title defense by Diosa Atenea over Heather Monroe. AAA hasn’t acknowledged the title match, the first in a year, and they’re barely acknowledging the title at this point. Taya appears unlikely to ever lose the championship.

Is this the same card as last night? It feels a lot like the same card. There’s no particular reason for the similar main event, except Mascara Dorada still has his Mondays free. Semimain might follow up on Adonis/Idol.

Imposible/Trauma II sounds like a fun idea. No IWRG Sunday with Boom running. No sign of a Wednesday show either.

CMLL has put Rey Cometa in the Universal tournament, replacing Barbaro Cavernario. In other words, they remembered the title change that happened in June. It’s embarrassing they forgot.

CMLL also apparently thought Angel de Oro would be back from Ring of Honor by Sunday’s show. He won’t be, and so Diamante Azul is now in the main event and Johnny Idol replaces him in the semimain. Fantasy replaces Astral on Saturday (Astral is still on Sunday, so it must be a date conflict and not an injury.)

Today’s Puebla show continues the Mascara Dorada awkward farewell tour, where we’re guessing when he’s leaving and CMLL’s doing their best not to acknowledge he is leaving. This could be his final match in Arena Puebla, or he could show up three more times before leaving, it’s all a little bit of a mystery. Dorada teams with Mistico and Volador against Ephesto, Felino and Mephisto. It’s 2/3rds of the world trios champions versus 2/3rds of the national trios champions.

The other member of the world trios champions, Valiente, teams with Maximo & Johnny Idol against Kraneo, Ripper and Sam Adonis. Adonis fouled Idol last week, which is all we’ve got for stories continuing on this show. Stigma & Skandalo continue their feud from the beginning of time (or at least the last couple years), teaming with Stuka, Titan, Misterioso and Sagrado. The women have a rare non-opener 2v2 match, with Estrellita & Lluvia facing Amapola & Tiffany. The first two matches are also 2v2 (CMLL mostly refusing to book 4v4), with the opener of Arkalis & Paris vs Malayo & Fuerza Chicana having a better chance of being watchable than Millenium & Tigre Rojo vs King Jaguar & Policeman.

The show airs at 9pm CT on CMLL & YouTube. This seems like a fairly skippable show, which some of the matches might still be good.

This week’s Estrellas del Ring team hypes the possibility of the Caristico & Mistico team. Maybe they can actually challenge for the tag titles after the Universal tournament is done.

This week’s MMM Show mentions that – at the LU taping – this past week’s Dial of Doom actually stopped on Dr. Wagner Jr., with a stage hand running/sliding over to push it to Prince Puma (as intended.) The crowd cracked up and Dario threatened to fire the stage hand. I didn’t catch it, but other people noted the wheel spin looked like it was done when fans weren’t there, and that’s probably why – they reshot it.

Loaded show, but attendance was less than usual for the CaraLucha show. (They did seem to have sponsors, so maybe they didn’t get killed.) Weirdly, Toro Negro Jr. skipped out on his home arena show to be an extra guy on the Arena Neza show.

CMLL hasn’t fixed the Cavernario participation. Best theory I heard (which I’m stealing from Rob.) was CMLL’s randomly decided Reyes del Aire is a championship now. That would mean someone is getting bumped. It would still be very dumb, and dumber in a different way for CMLL not to bother to explain the obvious thing that needs to be explained, but fitting in with CMLL’s usual poor communication.

Carisitco was back wrestling today, so his injury on Friday must’ve not be too severe.

The updated poster for the Elite 11/04 Toluca show has a surprise luchador replacing Strong Man. Guess it could still be Strong Man, but probably not. Elite also hinted this week’s show would be back in Mexico City.

Lucha Underground’s NYCC Panel had a lot of stuff you may have previously heard/read in other interviews. The plan of taping for five months/touring for seven months brought up previously popped up here too, that sort of thing. I get frustrated reading about these big plans. I do understand these are things they are actually being worked on, that just talking about these plans will help them achieve them, and that the whole point of these sort of panels are talk about the plans for the future. (Vampiro and his vague posts of big news on Facebook is even worse.) But, as someone who follows this every day, it’s increasingly hard to take these ideas for the future seriously when they rarely appear as more than ideas for the future. Part of the job is talk about these plans, and people are going to keep asking, but it’s getting to the point where I’d rather never hear about LU’s plans for touring (to pick one) again – I just want to heard about if/when they finally have something set. They’re kind of the “boy who cried Netflix deal” at this point.

Caristico working a rare Sunday show. He’s usually booked somewhere else – and it sounds like he may already be booked in Naucalpan for Lucha Libre Boom, somehow the only guy who is double booked like that. The Shocker/Marco feud is randomly dropped.

Heard the second and the semimain were great! Haven’t gotten to see it yet. I did manage to record most of the show remotely, but the feed went out at the end of the semimain and I didn’t get it working again until during the main event.

They did the hair match challenges after the semimain, and even Dave Meltzer thinks they’re going to do it. I’m skeptical: Volador would win the hair match and they would’ve saved his big win for that if it was coming any time soon. The main event, continuing a tease of a Dragon Lee & Mistico vs Rush & La Mascara feud from the Anniversary show, seems like the direction in the short term.

There’s no update on how the seriousness of Caristico’s injury. He usually mentions he’s OK on Twitter after a scare and has not yet. They don’t seem to be doing any angles on these shows.

CMLL’s show today in Arena Coliseo has Atlantis, Mistico and Maximo against Shocker, Ephesto and Luciferno. Last week was a title match, so we’re back to square one on a feud and many people in the match have a title. The semimain also has champions, with Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., and Rye Comet taking on Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero, and Olimpico. The tercera is Blue Panther, Titan, and Fuego against Disturbio, Misterioso and Sagrado, and those three matches might air on a Lucha Libre Retro show if the show itself ever starts airing. Of note, CMLL’s tonight doing a little bit of what people have begging them to do on Tuesdays – actually using some of the new people they’ve introduced to give new matches. Metalica and Jarochita are part of the women’s match. The opener is Robin & Templario against Rocky Casas & Yago.

A Televisa show, host by Denise Maerker, did a story this morning on the jail sentence of La Parka. The only problem is, it was a low level wrestler claiming to be La Parka, and not the long time AAA guy or LA Park. SuperLucha explains the whole thing. LA Park was very upset, since the guy was essentially pretending to be him.

Cavernario isn’t a champion. He lost his title to Rey Cometa in June. CMLL didn’t know this, which illustrates everything wrong with how they handle championships in this promotion. (Unless there was a plan to have Cavernario win last night and they changed their mind late.) They could leave Cavernario in the tournament and 90% of the people wouldn’t notice. Assuming everything stays the same, this is probably a rudo block. Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas, Mephisto all have good shots.

This would lave Dragon Lee, Dragon Rojo, La Máscara, Volador Jr., Rey Bucanero, Atlantis, Ephesto, and Luciferno as the other block on 10/21. Which means a tecnico, Dragon Lee, Volador or Atlantis. (Mistico vs La Mascara would be the one possible main event the other way.)

10/28, the final, is also a Dia del Muertos show. The winner gets the Universal championship, the loser will get dragged to hell. It might be an iPPV.

I can’t believe they brought the Dinamtias back. They were absolutely awful. CMLL could believe they were a draw on 09/16, but it’s hard to believe they would be so again after the reaction to the match. The opponents are interesting: I have no idea what Stuka is going to do there, but Marco in that match amusing. Long ago, Marco’s first feud with the promotion was against Universo 2000. There’s an infamous spot where Universo 2000 clumsily & dangerously hit Marco in the back of the head with a chair, causing him to bleed badly. There were very bad feelings after that, though it’s more than a decade ago now.

That match probably won’t be any good and the Universal tournament is never any good. The tercera should be good, but you should skip this show.

Full card for CaraLucha’s show next week. Main event is really the eye catching match, but the semimain makes me realize Rey Escorpion versus Fenix really needs to happen now that they’re both available.

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The biggest match on this week’s show is the same match as last week. Cavernario and Volador have another singles match, this time for Volador’s NWA Historic Welterweight Championship after Cavernario got the win over Volador in the Reyes del Aire show. Both men did just about everything they can do last week, so the challenge will be find something else to do this week. (It should still be pretty good if they don’t, but it’s going tough to be unique.) Cavernario winning would mess up the Universal math, but there’s no sign of that happening any time soon and it may not be a concern at this point. Cavernario winning would also be an indication of how serious CMLL takes this feud; if Cavernario wins singles matches two straight weeks, they may actually be doing the teased hair match. (If he doesn’t, it just goes into the pile of feuds they can bring back some rainy day.)

Cavernario told ESTO he was surprised to make the Reyes del Aire final and was nervous going in. He also talked about working on his accounting degree: he plans on being a luchador for a long time, but wants a backup in case he ever can’t do it. He likes studying like he likes lucha.

There’s ongoing story line on the show, so the main event and second most hypest match is the Munoz brothers teaming up in the main event. Dragon Lee, Mistico and Rush take on Mephisto, Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero. The booking of that family has been inconsistent of late, even for CMLL. Dragon Lee and Rush were supposed to be on opposite sides after the Anniversary show, and they haven’t done anything with it for a month. Maybe it’ll make more sense after this match.

The rest of the show are matches, though generally OK to good looking matches. Atlantis, Valiente and Mascara Dorada face Dragon Rojo, Polvora and Felino (though CMLL’s own preview still lists Super Crazy.) The women’s match is Marcela, Lluvia and Princesa Sugehit against Dalys, Tiffany, and Amapola. Puma & Tiger continue to make a strange home in the segundas, teaming with Okumura against Hombre Bala Jr., Star Jr. and Soberano Junior. Ultimo Dragon & Fantasy vs Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Nitro is the opener.

CMLL announced the dates for the Dia del Muertos shows. They seemed successful last year, and they’re going to double the amount of dates to see if it holds up. There will be themed shows on 10/25 (Tuesday), 10/28 (Friday), 10/30 (Sunday), and 11/01 (Tuesday.) The Friday show was an iPPV last year. It’d make sense for it to be again, but there’s not as strong a reason to buy it on Friday if the same concept is airing on two Tuesdays for free.

Elite also tapes today, with a main event of Caristico & Xtreme Tiger versus LA Park & Rey Escorpion taking place in Cuautitlan. The post-CMLL Elite TV has not been strong: the match quality has dropped with the lack of depth, and they’re really lacking any destination. The Liga Elite matches provided both good matches and at least a theoretical end point. It’s just matches to have matches, with even less of a focus on a direction than CMLL, and the matches have to be much better than they’ve been to make that work. Whoever’s putting the cards together doesn’t seem to have a great grasp on what combinations make for good matches, or lacks the available wrestlers to put together good combinations. The semimain is a good example of it: Black Tauro (ex-Taurus AAA) debuts and is really great against high flyers, but he’s facing Guapos Zumbido & Decnnis and Mr. Aguila. Aguila of a decade or more ago would be a great opponent for Taurus. The Aguilas of today are guys like Golden Magic, el Bandido and Ultimo Ninja, but they’re facing the problematic trio of Argos, Karonte Jr. and Hijo de Dos Caras. That main event is the best set up match, but also just happens to be that way because those are the top stars who are around this week.

La Parka and Hijo del Tirantes are very critical of Jack Evans’s critical comments of AAA. They specifically seem upset about Jack calling Parka a terrible wrestler (which Jack did somehow turn into a compliment about Parka still being way over despite it and how he had to learn from that.) Jack may have gotten himself into some serious trouble this time. There are people frustrated in post-Konnan AAA, but there’s also plenty who are happy with AAA and/or believe you should never be publicly critical of the company you work for.

This is a less than inspiring choice for a long term diehard fan – Angel de Oro isn’t too popular, and is one of the guys most likely to have the same exact match every time out – but he did get over in his NJPW tour because it was all new to the fans. It’s also possible this was a last minute decision and they didn’t have a wide group of people to choose from: ROH needed to replace the mysterious Matt Sydal, and they may have not even considered a CMLL guy before Dragon Lee got over this past week. And it’s not like ROH is really marketing much towards CMLL fans in the first place – this is just scans as “random luchador!” for more people going to this show. Still, I’d probably go to the Chicago Ridge show if this was someone cool, and this is is not someone who’s going to get me to go. I could still watch Tanaka & Komatsu and ask them why they’re so scared of the Panthers that they left Mexico (not the real story).

This is a month away, light years into the future for Elite, but tickets are already on sale so the lineup is as well. I say this every single time: Toluca is a great crowd for TV tapings. They’re getting a bizarre show. Caristico/Cibernetico is the biggest match Elite has to offer, and they’re in the main event. Bobby Lashley, last reported by Elite as unable to return to Mexico, is able to return to Mexico – and he’s facing Strong Man! I wasn’t even sure if Strong Man was still wrestling (he doesn’t turn up in results since 2014, hasn’t been in CMLL since 2011), but he was just featured in the Lucha Mexico documentary and I’d guess the connection is Shocker.

Flamita & Octagon on opposite sides of a match is interesting. I’m sure the idea is Octagon & Fuerza and Tiger & Flamita mostly work against each other, but I have some doubt that one is going to happen and will until it does.

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What happened: CMLL honored legends by putting them in the ring. Many should’ve passed on that honor. Matt Taven debuted and cheated to beat Rush. Rey Escorpión had his last match as an Ingobernable, though no one knew it at the time.

What was good: The main event was the worst match on a major show in any promotion in the world this year.

I liked the two current day CMLL matches, and the third match was the most salvageable of the legend matches.

Where can I watch it: I watched it on RockerGamer’s channel. I think.(more…)

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AAA starts to air Heroes Inmortales this week, though we won’t know whihc matches until they post the preview. 7 matches is usually one more match than they air over two weeks, which is now a bit concerning to a person who may have committed to writing about this show for another outlet. Maybe keep an eye on the YouTube channel.

CMLL on Tuesday is a good test for Diamante Azul. If you can’t have a good match with Rush, you may be beyond hope.